5.28.2009

The American Cancer Society Relay For Life represents the hope that those lost to cancer will never be forgotten, that those who face cancer will be supported, and that one day cancer will be eliminated.

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It is time once again for Keith's Brain Trust to prepare for the ACS Relay For Life of Hudson. As in the past, I sent out emails to ask for donations for this cause. Of course, in years past, I was doing this task in tandem with letters for those among my family and friends who do not have email access either by choice or necessity. And I would be starting months earlier. This year, however, I was unable to get the drive to do so.

And now, the Relay is less than a month away. And activities this past week have given me the kick in the butt I needed to get on the ball. But that wasn't enough time to send out letters via the post. So that's where any blog readers come in. Now I realize that I/we do not update this blog enough to have regular readers any more. So if you've simply stumbled in here via some search, bless you. And I hope you will be moved to donate to our Relay.

If you are a regular reader and somehow miraculously noticed that I updated and came to see what I'm writing, bless you too! And if you haven't already been smacked with a long email about this subject, or dropped me from Facebook because you are tired of hearing about it there, or unfollowed me on Twitter because you were tired of me tweeting about it there, perhaps you'd like to drop a donation here now.

I could say something like they do during the Public Radio pledge drives, that the sooner I reach my (current) goal of $500, the sooner you'll be able to stop hearing about it. But unfortunately I typically raise my goal to something higher the minute I reach one because I'm all about resetting a goal once I realize I haven't aimed high enough. And considering I've raised MUCH more than $500 for the team in past years (when the economy wasn't doing so poorly, I know), I know that I'm lowballing it again, but I started so late this year!

But I know that with your help on this idea of mine, together we can do it. And I know that I have to tell a LOT of people in order to accomplish my idea. Here's the thing. I've decided that this year, I'm going to walk the whole Relay. Me. I'm going to walk the entire (in our case) 15 hours of the Relay. The rule of Relay is that they want someone from your team on the track for the whole thing. And I know that someone else from our team will most likely be out there with me. For much or most of it. But I've always wanted to do the whole thing. Like Gordy Klatt did when he came up with the idea 25 years ago and created this whole Relay For Life idea. Only his Relay was 24 hours. And he ran. So surely I can do this.

But I figure the more people I tell, the better. And even BETTER, is the more donations I have toward this, the harder it will be for me to quit. But that isn't the real reason I want you to give.

The real reason is because ACS has great programs. Like Look Good, Feel Better. And their 24-hour 800 number. And Cancer.Org where you can get all sorts of information and support. And the Patient Navigator program. There are just so many things that the Relay money does.

And it's especially important to me and my team members this year. Because we lost one of our own. And quite frankly, we're getting tired of our friends and family having to suffer through this. We want to see the end. And I know that you do, too.

And I know that thanks to generous donations from people like you, it's going to happen.